Few good stories…

Everyday life brings you a few good stories – some incidents, about the people whom you know, or you don't even know - that make you feel good. You feel good about life – that there is hope - if one is interested in it.

My commute to work includes a forty minutes (each side) journey by my office-bus – and I prefer to spend that time in reading or catching a power nap while listening to music. In other words I shut myself against any disturbance which can devoid me from my me-time. Not a chatter I am, but sometime I cannot escape, and I must say that these are the time when I do learn about people.

A conversation with a colleague on slow-down, recession, firing and why is it "hard" to train "resources" turned into a chat  about a person who used to drive their office cab in the organization my colleague worked previously. Cab or taxi driving, unfortunately, is not regarded as a very noble profession in my country. A tough job it is, all it includes driving - like crazy to skip the stiff penalties imposed on not reaching within time, and it includes a lot of nagging from the cab users on reaching 2 minutes before time in the morning, and it includes sleeping – in the car for at least five days a week, and at bad time on wheel too as most of the time the driver is exhausted! Since, in most of the cases drivers do not own the cars, guarantee of a timely/monthly/complete salary too is not there. 

So it happened, that  the driver-lad, who could be in either side of his twenties at that time, was trying to learn the language of the Gods – English, a language which, in my country, may help you to elevate your status by a couple of inches over the rest who can't speak and/or can't understand. He was sharp, but couldn't complete the education after 10^th standard, but he had a keen interest in learning and improving himself, but didn't have any means - money and time included, to do so.

So, he, the driver-lad used to request his passengers to speak only in English with him. Starting from almost zero, it took him around two years to master the language - with very noticeable improvements. No…he did NOT acquire the accent and all, but at the end of two years, he was, ugh...better than some of the passengers he used to give ride to. My colleague used to think that the driver-lad is doing it so that he could start driving for some five-star hotel, where they ferry foreign-guests routinely on long distance, week-end trips and earn (relatively) high tips; or may be, to impress the girlies. But it turned out in the end that his ambition was comparatively simple – not to sit on the driver's seat for his whole life. 

Last heard, he secured a job which involved handling customers' queries in firm catering domestic customers. May be he will – and he should, go further up too. Like my readers, I don't know him, but I am happy for him. 

And yes, if we still feel that after some years of working-life, learning could become tough - despite all the classroom trainings at company expanses, books and all the Internet sites - Wikipedia included, spare a thought about this chap for whom learning meant taking directions in English for two years with eyes constantly on road!

Fast forward few months - now I am in Bangalore - returning home in an almost empty bus. An empty bus means that I could get a whole seat for myself and could read, or could open my laptop as I did that day. Suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder - it was the conductor. I had already shown him my pass, but still I reached to my pocket. He waved his hand and asked what is the smallest element on the screen - a pixel, or a bit. Well, it is pixel...exchanged few more sentences, when he asked about where I am from. Then he chatted about the current chief minister there and how many times he has become the CM, and that there only a few (four...?) CM's who became CM 5th time. Knowledgeable fellow - was the though I had. He told me that he appeared in his departmental exams for promotion, where he could get a desk-job, and that he had a paper on computers, and one on general knowledge. My stop came, and I had to get down. But, as the luck had it, I bumped into him the next day - after the weekend - too, again, an empty bus. This time I had my dongle too, so we went on and searched for the answers on some 20 or so questions. I was amazed at his knowledge. I spend a large chunk of my time on the job in reading the on-line newspapers and articles, whereas his time is spent mostly with his passengers who, mostly - like most of my countrymen - are either shouting, or complaining or are alternatively, too busy/elite etc. even to bring the right amount of change, and hence haggling constantly; amid all this he still find the time to read - standing next to driver, reading a local, Kannada newspaper and has amassed as much knowledge, as he could.
Wish him luck - a very good one, folks!